MacStory.html

McADAMS STORIES

and YARNS


Sacajawea

President Thomas Jefferson was a neighbor and good friends with the Lewis and Clark families. He asked them to head up the expedition to explore the recently purchased Louisiana Territory.

Merriweather Lewis and William Rogers Clark gathered together a small band of men and equipment for a long two or more year journey. They hired Tous-Saint Charbonneau, a Frenchman and his wife, Sacajawea as guides and interpreters. Sacajawea was a daughter of Yellow Hand, a Shoshone Indian Chief of Southern Wyoming.

Sacajawea proved to be a better and braver guide and interpreter than her French husband and, Charbonneau. He left the expedition somewhere along the way and returned home. Sacajawea stayed with Lewis and Clark for the entire trip. During the trip she gave birth to her first child, Baptiste who was born 11 Feb. 1805.

After the expedition had returned Charbonneau and Sacajawea had their second child, Bazil. Their third child, was Yaga-wosier. Little is known about Baptiste and he is not found in any census records. He lived around the Shoshone Indian Reservation at Wind River, Wyoming. Who he married is not known but he had at least two children, Andrew and Nancy.

Nancy Bazil married a McAdams whose first name is not known. In fact, nothing else is known about him. Their son was James R. McAdams who was born in July of 1869. James in his childhood is said to have spent much time with his great-grandmother, Sacajawea. He was an early student of the old Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle in Cumberland Co. Pennsylvania. He later returned to the school as a teacher sometime around 1898.

In 1929, when he was sixty he wrote the story about his g/grandmother, Sacajawea and his grand father, Bazil. James R. McAdams is listed in the 1910 Wyoming census as single man, head of the household, married only once, his mother a Shoshone Indian and father born in US. With him was listed a stepdaughter, Felicia, age 8, an Indian born in Wyoming. At this time, he was living on the Shoshone Indian Reservation at Wind River, Freemont Co., Wyoming. The census would list anyone as an Indian if only one parent was Indian and the other Caucasian.

In the family history of John McAdams of Northumberland Co., Penn. is a tradition that John McAdams joined the Lewis and Clark expedition as a hunter and trapper. The records of Lewis and Clark do not confirm any McAdams. The Sacajawea story that some McAdams was associating with this group does give the tradition some credit. In addition there are two letters written about the journey by a John McCallam in the Lewis and Clark papers that makes this man a suspect as being McAdams.

William Rogers Clark was in command at Fort Greenville and George Rogers Clark was in Command of the Lincoln County, Kentucky Militia. His detachment was guarding the salt mines know as the "Salt Works" located in Shepardsville, Bullit Co., Kentucky. Samuel McAdams of Lincoln Co., Kentucky served in this unit as a lieut. that was under the command of General Wayne Anthony.

 

McAdams Invents Golf?

Actually, the game of golf was invented in Scotland at St. Andrews. However, Water T. McAdams, whose ancestors came from Scotland, sensationalized the golf world with his invention of miniature golf courses. His idea was known as "Tom Thumb Golf". The bumps, traps, and windmills on miniature golf courses are attributed to Walter. In fact, all present day miniature golf courses are laid out from his ideas.

Walter T. McAdams comes from the line of Hugh McAdams of Orange County, North Carolina. His son, John moved to Nashville where his son, Walter was born in about 1820. Walter married Sina E. Hollis in 1845. He was captured at Ft. Donaldson and died in prison in 1861. James T. McAdams was Walter's father. Walter was born in Arkansas in 1888 and married Ethyle Burbank.

 

GALLANT ACTION of the ROYAL SCOTS
Lt. McAdam with 17 men of the 9 th Foot is recorded to gallant action of devotion never 
surpassed in Military annals. In the War of 1812, in 1813, Lt. McAdam and his troops ran 
shooting and geering to make believe an assault was coming to expose fire from the French. 
Only Lt. McAdam returned of their assigned mission.

 

FAMILY NUT

The Macadamia nut is named after John McAdam who lived in Australia. Some native workers brought his these nuts to try. John selected the best strain of the trees and had them imported to Hawaii where most are grown today.

 

007 Secret Agent McAdams

Secret Service Agent McAdams was Eugene Perrot McAdams, the eldest son of George Washington McAdams and his wife Dorcas Comstock. He was born in Hawesville, Kentucky 23 July 1847. H married Mary Elizabeth Pope on 19 Dec. 1867.

Eugene worked for his father in the tobacco business, but was never well suited for the business. He announced his candidacy for the office of County Clerk of Hancock County and won by a large majority. In 1896 he was appointed to the Office Surveyor of the Port of Louisville. This lead to his appointment as Special Operative of the United States Secret Service as an assistant to the Secret Service Agent in Birmingham, Alabama. He was made Agent of the Secret Service in 1901 headquarted in Birmingham. His territory was Alabama, Western Tennessee, Northern Mississippi and part of Georgia.

When Mr. Taft was President, Agent McAdams accompanied the President on an extended trip through the West. From there he was with the President constantly. He remarked to his children later, "Mr. Taft's covering of fat extended to his brain and he slept most of the time." His consensus about Taft that he was a great lawyer, but as a President he ranks at the bottom of the list.

He felt differently about Theodore Roosevelt who he admired very much. When the President was in Birmingham, a Mr. Loeb tried to join the President who Agent McAdams pulled to the ground. However, Agent McAdams did not know at the time that he was the Secretary of the President. Mr. Loeb was furious, but the President enjoyed the incident. On return to Washington, the President sent Agent McAdams a letter thanking him for looking after his safety mentioning how funny Mr. Loeb looked when he was jerked from the carriage.

Due to poor health, Agent McAdams sent in his resignation in March 1916 and died soon after. He is buried in the family plot in Hawesville, Kentucky.


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